This invention relates to a method for pregerminating seeds before sowing and apparatus for carrying out the method.
In many parts of the world, due to short growing season, crops are at the mercy of the weather especially at the critical harvest. It is well known the growing time of plants can be hastened by starting the germination process and then planting the seeds. The main factor in promoting germination is the moisture content of the seed. Gardeners with small plots have for years soaked the seeds in water prior to planting to hasten the growing time. Soaking of seeds in water is slow and difficult if not impossible to implement commercially and particularly for large scale farm operations.
Pre-soaking of seeds is costly and time-consuming and also leads to the possible entry of bacteria virus, etc. and thus is most undesirable. Furthermore, seeds can be readily over-treated with pre-soaking.
A method for improving the growth characteristics of plant material is disclosed in Canadian Pat. No. 947,504 issued May 21, 1974 to the University of Ottawa. The method disclosed therein consists of soaking the seeds in water and subjecting the seeds to sound vibrations and/or direct vibrations. In the case of sound vibrations, the process is slow as there is soaking time followed by four to five weeks of subjecting the seeds to the sound waves. Subjecting the seeds to direct vibration substantially reduces the time for the process but it is questionable as to whether or not the process as disclosed therein could be scaled up to handle large quantities of seeds in each batch and thus is of questionable commercial viability.
Another proposed method for improving the growth characteristic of plant material involves subjecting the seeds, prior to planting, to an electro-magnetic field. In another proposal, seeds are subjected to high voltage sparks.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method of obtaining fast entry of water through the protective coating surrounding the seeds without any substantial damage to the seed.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of promoting the germination of seeds by processing a bulk quantity of seeds at one time thereby providing a commercially viable scale of operation.
In Applicant's attempt to find some method of obtaining fast entry of water through the protective coating surrounding the seed, various experiments were conducted. In one attempt, seeds were bombarded by high voltage sparks of typically 100,000 volts. This produced numerous small holes in the coating and after a soaking in water a significant rise in seeding moisture resulted. The system, however, was deemed too difficult to scale up for a commercially viable operation.
In another attempt, seeds were subjected to pressure while submerged in water by injecting carbon dioxide gas at a pressure of up to 836 p.s.i. This obtained a greater moisture content, but it was noted a portion of the seeds suffered bran damage.
In another attempt, seeds were subjected to a vacuum and as soon as the vacuum was obtained, the seeds were noted to be outgassing violently. After the vacuum was released, the moisture content was found to be about equal to the pressure system with no damage noted.